One of the brightest transient events is the result of a supermassive black hole beginning to feast on surrounding O matter, resulting in one of the most dramatic ‘switching on’ events ever seen. Transients are astronomical events or objects that change in brightness over short periods of time, and the one powered by this greedy black hole, J221951-484240, is one of the brightest transients ever recorded.
The position of the black hole corresponds with the centre of a previously observed galaxy –
